A Rich Man's Christmas
by Solstice Muse
Summary: Short drabble about Arthur Weasley Christmas shopping for his young family with only three Galleons to spend.


**A Rich Man's Christmas**

Arthur had three Galleons and seven children. Lucius Malfoy had more Galleons in his money bag than Arthur had earned all year and one child.

He was proud of his three Galleons as he clutched them tightly. He had worked for them and earned them honestly. He would never look at one of his children and think of how much of his earnings they drained. He smiled and thought about how much richer he was for them.

People were squabbling with a salesman over the last of the toy broomsticks with the built-in cushioning and stabilising charms that made even the clumsiest of infant flyers look like Ludo Bagman. Lucius stepped to the front of the queue and held out his hand without a word.

The salesman paled and then quickly scrambled for a bag stowed beneath the counter and hooked the handles over Malfoy's hand, almost grovelling as he stepped back from the man.

"That's the last of the toy broomsticks, a junior wizard chess set and a book of wizard chess cheats, spun sugar baubles with the Malfoy coat of arms glazed on the front, and soft flying monkey toy with an extra long charm to sustain the flying action before it just returns to its cuddly toy state."

One of the customers piped up that they had just been told there had been no flying toy monkeys for months but Lucius simply smirked and took the bag full of treats for his son's Christmas stocking and stalked past Arthur.

"Oh Weasley, last minute shopping for that ever expanding family of yours are you?" he drawled, "Please, do tell me, which one of the lucky ragamuffins is getting the gift this year?"

"Excuse me?" Arthur growled.

"Or are you and your _lovely_ wife not buying each other anything so you can give them all a pair of socks each rather than just the one?"

As Arthur seethed and clenched his fists tightly around his three Galleons, Lucius flounced out like a peacock in full strut. The crowd dispersed and Arthur approached the shame-faced salesman and cleared his throat and his head at the same time.

"Seven candy canes please."

"Extra large, large or small sir?"

"Small thank you," Arthur said with a smile.

When he got home Molly was knitting the last of the Christmas jumpers. Arthur shook off his cloak and leaned over her to plant a kiss on her cheek.

"Hello dear, I have the sweets for the children; they even did the stripes in different colours to match the colour of their jumpers for no extra cost!"

"Oh how lovely." Molly beamed as she resumed her clicking with the knitting needles.

Hearing the familiar crashing sound of the back door being flung open Arthur hid the bag of candy canes under his cloak and Molly thrust aside her knitting.

The twins tore through the house, straddling two sticks from the woods and pretending to be flying through the air on broomsticks. Charlie was covered in mud and holding a baby hedgehog in his hands, puppy dog eyes on his mother and head cocked to one side.

"He can sleep in a box in my room and I'll feed him and keep him clean an-"

"Hedgehogs have fleas Charlie!" Molly said, knowing she'd already lost the argument.

"I'll find a spell to banish them and you could do it for me and when he's grown up I'll set him free again. Please Mum, he got woken up from hibernation and he lost his family?"

Molly sighed and Charlie beamed and bounded up to his room.

Percy led Ronnie into the room by the hand and sat him down on the floor before the fire.

"I'm teaching Ronnie to play chess, he wants somebody to play with and Fred and George were just pushing him around so..."

"That's lovely Percy, the board and the pieces are in the cupboard over there. They're a bit battered though."

"Battered by victory mother, only bad players have pristine chess pieces," Percy said, haughtily as Ron bounced up and down on his bottom, excitedly.

Ginny came tripping over her feet into the room, dragging Bill by the front of his jacket as his arms were laden with fur cones, and headed straight for the Christmas tree.

"We are gonna colour them in and tie cotton around them and hang them on the tree like norm-a-ments!"

"Ornaments," Bill said with a sigh of resignation, "and that's a brilliant idea Ginny."

Arthur turned to Molly and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly.

His children wanted for nothing and he and Molly were spoiled rotten.


End file.
